Yesterday at the Sustainable Development UK Conference in London, Professor Beddington delivered a Nostradamus-quality forecast of doom.

John Beddington

Besides being struck by yet another rhetorical use of the phrase “perfect storm” (I thought we were already in an economic “perfect storm”?), I was reminded about other well-respected scientists who boldly and confidently predicted catastrophe. There was former presidential science advisor Paul Ehrlich, who wrote a book in 1968 called “The Population Bomb.” It predicted hundreds of millions of people would die of starvation in the 1970s and 1980s as population outgrew food supplies.

A worldwide environmental disaster was predicted by famed astronomer Carl Sagan. He suggested in 1991 that if Kuwaiti oil wells were torched, the resulting fires would pollute the atmosphere and plunge the planet into wintry cold. He erroneously discounted the ability of man to extinguish the fires, and the atmosphere to cleanse itself.

The current US administration has promised to “restore science to its rightful place.” Britain’s Beddington suggests European governments involve independent scientists in policymaking. As something of a scientist myself, I thought I knew what science is and what scientists do. I’m not sure I know anymore.